Four new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the UK as the disease declared 'serious and imminent threat'.

The coronavirus has been declared a global emergency by the World Health Organisation, as the outbreak continues to spread outside China.

Medical defence organisation MDDUS has drawn up a risk alert to guide General Practices in maximising communication with patients at key contact points.

The guidance covers best practice advice on deploying social media, text alerts and triage planning in order to manage any increase in patient contact during this period of high media interest in the Wuhan coronavirus.

MDDUS provides regular risk advice and training to its membership of more than 50,000. Our advice on maximising communicating to patients on the coronavirus issue is built on best practice issued by agencies including Public Health England.

Social media

Social media can be an excellent way for practices to push updated public health information out to their patients. Patients may be more likely to 'listen' to a post from their own trusted health provider than other media sources. While it is important that patients who need to be seen are seen, providing clear information online can help manage demand and reduce the spread of infection in these situations.

Do – ensure your team avoid giving 'clinical advice' to patients about what to do if friends, local community sites and family post on social media about their symptoms. If individuals feel they need to engage, limit advice to how best to access the appropriate local services/out-of-hours advice and care.

Do – share relevant and updated NHS advice for patients via the practice’s social media channels.

Do – check your contact information is up to date, including how patients can get individualised clinical advice over the telephone, how your triage system works and how to make an appointment if they need to be seen in core service times and also out-of-hours.

Text alerts

Making use of text messaging to communicate public health information to target groups of patients at higher risk is worth considering.

Do – consider if it’s appropriate to send information to identified groups of patients about risks specific to them. This is likely to be permissible under GDPR as it concerns important public health information, but if you are unsure about whether this can be undertaken within the bounds of a legitimate purpose or any other opt-in consent processes you have in place, contacting MDDUS and the Information Commissioner’s Office for input would be advised.

You can read the rest of the risk alert here – https://www.mddus.com/resources/resource-library/risk-alerts/2020/january/communicating-with-patients-about-the-coronavirus

Below Durr Dental outlines some FAQs on the virus:

What is the novel coronavirus?

The new pathogen belongs to the corona virus strain. It is known that the new pathogen is a beta coronavirus that is over 80% genetically identical to the SARS coronavirus.

Where does the new coronavirus come from?

The virus probably comes from wild animals. Accordingly, there were first transmissions from animals to humans, then transmissionsfrom human to human. However, no direct transition from animals to humans is assumed, but an as yet unidentified intermediate host.

Incubation period

The incubation period from infection to the onset of the first symptoms averages around 5 to 6 days. However, the incubation period is subject to large inter-individual fluctuations, so that a period of 2 to 14 days is possible. It is very similar to SARS. The viruses can already during the incubation period, i.e. before the onset of symptoms.

Duration of contagiousness

It is believed that the time from infection to onset can be up to 14 days.

Transmission

The pathogens are caused by:

▪ droplet infection and

▪ transfer contact infection.

Because other coronaviruses are also spread by smear infection spread, this transmission path cannot be excluded.

Symptoms

A 2019 nCoV infection is initially noticeable due to unspecific general symptoms.

The following symptoms can occur, among others:

▪ Severe difficulty breathing

▪ lung infection

▪ Dry cough

▪ Fever.


Author: